Soon, Film Director Artak Avdalyan's `Ararat-Urartu Kingdom' a
documentary film will be screened, which presents the history of the
Kingdom of Van (Urartu). This was told to Aravot.am by the film author
and historian Artak Movsisyan. `Most of the work is done. The
shootings took place in Western Armenia, also here, in Iran. The film
presents Urartu as a civilization phenomenon and an important
component of the Armenian history. It also will serve as a handbook
for educational institutions.' To the observation that according to
some authors, Urartu did not even exist, Artak Movsisyan responded,
`We will present the facts and the viewers will figure out themselves.
The facts are very, we have abundant and rich material. The issue of
denying the existence of Urartu has more political reasons than
scientific.' Our interlocutor informed that earlier `Tigran the
Great', `Nemrut', `From Petroglyphs to Alphabet', `The Capital Older
than Rome', `Falsifiers of History' popular films.

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian-French-Iranian archaeological expedition has discovered the most ancient street of Yerevan in the territory of the Urartian city ofErebuni, head of the Armenian team of the expedition Mikayel Badalyan told reporters Thursday, July 7.

"This year, a 30-meter-long street with beautiful tiles has been found near the temple of Khaldi in Erebuni museum-reserve. It is 2700 years old,” Novosti Armenia cited Badalyan as saying.

He noted that this is a unique and unprecedented discovery, which completely changes the essence of the Urartian civilization.

“There are new assumptions about why there was a need for the construction of the Teishebaini fortress. It turned out, in particular, that an earthquake hit the area in the middle of the 7th century BC,” Badalyan said.

The head of the French team Stefan Duchamp, in turn, stressed the importance of the excavations.

“In recent years, foundations of buildings have been unearthed, hinting at the presence of not two, but three temples in Erebuni,” he said.

According to him, the excavations led to discoveries that are important for understanding the development of the civilization in the region in post-Urartian period.

Ruins of a fortress, supposedly built around 3000 years ago during the time of the state of Urartu, were found at the bottom of Lake Van in eastern Turkey, RIA Novosti reported.

It is noted that the construction occupying an area of ​​about one square kilometer at a depth of more than ten meters, was flooded due to the fact that the water level in the lake rose 150 meters over the last centuries. During the underwater studies, stone sculpture of a lion was also discovered. Local authorities expect that the finding will attract the attention of archaeologists and tourists-divers.

Urartu is a state in the Near East centred on Lake Van in the Armenian Highlands from 9 to 6 centuries BC.